Writer and enthusiastic photographer
Brisbane - State of Queensland
Ken loves to write about everything and anything and is an occasional poet and enthusiastic photographer. So that he can swap wit and banter with other like-minded bees, he leaves his choleric melancholic character in his home office and goes on a daily walkabout on social media.
172 articles
Optimism is a wonderful thing. It keep you in a fairytale state of false security against the “slings and arrows of outrageous …” major service providers, until … If you want more, then please join me...
If you want to change the world with your writing, you may have to change some of your words. I'm trying out alternative blogging sites, so why not join me on Medium and find out why “First drafts are...
I'm trying out alternative blogging sites. From nanoplastics to megaplastics, lets find out what's top of the POPs in our oceans this week: https://medium.com/@kenboddie/lets-talk-garbage-great-pacifi...
I'm trying out alternative blogging sites. From ‘dipping your toe in the water’ to ‘jumping in at the deep end’, see my latest renewable energy article, “The Ups and Downs of Ocean Power”, on Medium a...
I'm trying out alternative blogging sites. See my latest climate change article on Medium at this link. https://medium.com/@kenboddie/rewilding-the-land-554780070be7 __________________________________...
It was the last weekend in October already. If that's not scary enough (what with the mid-year sales seemingly having passed by only five minutes ago) then the end of October heralds its customary pro...
In the context of teaching English, either as a foreign language (TEFL) or a second language (TESOL), do idioms deliver delirium, or do they merely promise pandemonium? For the learner of English as a...
Many of you will have read that methane is an important component of world-wide greenhouse gas emissions (Ref 1), along with carbon dioxide and a few others. Greenhouse gases, of course, are now gener...
As many of you may know, my wife and I have recently returned from yet another trip to Indonesia, where we caught up with family and friends from ‘way back’, and did an extensive road tour of places,...
I've recently returned from a trip to Indonesia, aimed at: exploring parts of Java which I'd either not before visited, or not seen for many, many years; catching up with my extended family and friend...
Question No 1: Where can you find Roller Coasters, Hollywood Stunt Driving, The Batmobile, Speedy Gonzales' Tijuana Taxis, Yosemite Sam's Railroad and the Batwing Spaceshot, all in less than one hour'...
I've been busier than a mozzie (mosquito) at a nudist beach lately , so I haven't made time to write many blogs in recent months. You see, back in March I pulled the shutters down on my engineering ca...
The Japanese are seemingly working on a ‘ground-breaking’ solution to prevent earthquake damage to dwellings. Basically, the shaking triggers a sensor that starts a powerful air compressor that elevat...
How an opportune afternoon, aimed at attuning a young mind to the good old Disney cartoons, turned into a child-minder's unintended observation of, education into and information on, the Magic of Anim...
Kia ora, nau mai ki Aotearoa (Hello and welcome to the Land of the Long White Cloud). It had been over 34 years since we left the first home we had in married life in New Zealand. We had lived there f...
Come to New Zealand, they said! Go bungy jumping, they said! Watch Maori warriors do the Haka, they said! Catch a whiff of rotten eggs gas as you bathe in hot mud and see the geysers bubble and hiss,...
It was hot … bloody hot! … yet here we were in the middle of the 'high dune' country, in the south of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on the edge of Saudi Arabia's 'Empty Quarter'. We were drilling si...
Introductory Geographic Lesson I was tidying up some photographic files from a couple of years back, when I came across these two landscape pics. I took them from two lookout spots, both on the flat p...
There's a part of Australia I've seen now and then, Where the folks are resilient, both women and men, Where drought is the norm, and the rains rarely come, Where life can be cruel, way too hard for s...
It was just after 5am on an April morning (2019), it was cold, and the sun was struggling to penetrate a band of cloud across the eastern horizon. We could already see from our crowded vantage point,...
At last I was off to dinosaur country, that part of outback Queensland renowned in recent decades for its uniquely Australian, Cretaceous aged, fossilised dinosaur bones. It is also famous for being t...
Perhaps Scotty, the 7m high equine wonder, at this year's Boonah ‘Clydesdale Spectacular’ June show, will give you a clue to my blog title. And why's he blue, do you ask? Well, June is winter ‘down-un...
Today is, believe it or not, ‘National Let’s Laugh Day’ in the USA? But why shouldn't we all take a day now and again to concentrate on laughter and fun? Why should the Americans have all the fun? The...
In order to distract you from your focus on Ukraine and COVID-19, spare a thought for many of us in Australia's South-East Queensland, where we are in the middle of a prolonged rain event, which has b...
Let's talk about how we manage reproduction, by which I mean the following processes: Desiring to cultivate the initial seeds that will eventually lead to conception; Selecting an appropriate source (...
Call me unromantic. Call me boringly down-to-earth. Call me cold, indifferent or dull, but will someone please tell me what's Cupid with a bow and arrow, or a semi-automatic pistol (if we want to upda...
I hope you'll watch and listen to the words of this powerful song (originally written by The Seekers), as this Australia Day, 26 January, draws to a close. For many, the day is one of celebration of o...
For all you aging art and pop music aficionados, this post is not confirmation of the brilliance of da Vinci's Louvre mounted smiling enchantress, nor is it an appreciation of the 45 year old Detroit-...
It appears that Santa’s elf negotiators have failed in their attempts to exclude the big fella from having to ‘sign in‘, using the appropriate Australian state or territory health department QR codes,...
Most of you reading this will know that Australia has a goodly line up of beasts and critters, on land and in our oceans, guaranteed to cause you grief should you be unfortunate enough to stumble acro...
Let me preface this particularly prejudicial post on the joys of motorbikes, by stating that the last time I personally relied on 2 wheels for transportation was either using pedal power on the sturdy...
Good disguise, but hardly David's son? Trawling through the ‘What’s On" app for Sunday afternoon drive ideas, up popped Tamborine Mountain's annual Scarecrow Festival. This four day event, with colour...
Spring has sprung here in Brissie (Brisbane to the uninitiated from outside South-East Queensland) and with it comes the end of year exams at the local universities. No wonder then that the Jacaranda,...
It seems like a lifetime ago … and in many ways it was. Attending Outward Bound's Moray Sea School, back in 1965, was an important hold point and wake-up call in my character moulding. This wasn't thr...
The fruits of our labour … literally Well the Beatles may have thought that Strawberry Fields were “nothing to get hung about”, but at least from May to October each year, the call of the tasty strawb...
Why do we get so indignant when someone lets one rip, cuts the cheese, blows off, does a bum burp, hits 7.4 on the rectum scale, drops their guts, squeaks one out, steps on a duck, lets one off, or si...
So we've already established that you're a workaholic. You have Egyptian mummy syndrome … you just can't unwind. You're seriously dedicated to working your ass off. You have no hobbies, no sense of hu...
@Javier 🐝 CR asked for feedback on additional beBee improvements, in comment #31 of this post here: https://it.bebee.com/producer/how-can-we-improve-bebee I figured that my response would be too long...
Let me tell you how a recent Sunday afternoon stroll along Wynnun Jetty unexpectedly turned into a journey of cultural awareness. Not so long ago we took the opportunity to take the short ferry trip a...
"It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life For me And I'm feeling good." Michael Bublé summed up the new beBee platform for me with his “Feeling Good” lyrics. Things may have taken many of us by...
Fed up with all those work-related marketing posts? ‘How to listicles’ getting you down? Want to chuckle your way through the end of the day and destress? Well why not put your feet up and relax with...
As we all get used to the differences between the old and new beBee website, there’s one burning question that springs to mind. Now the hives have disappeared and we have to start again with groups, a...
I just commented on a new buzz but when I came to share, I found the hives had totally gone. Am I missing something? Then there’s my wall (or home page) which is flooded with old buzzes posted by Javi...
What is the truth and can we handle it? We live in a world where knowledge/data/news is now so relatively easy to access that information overload can form an impediment in even a simple search for ad...
I was in my early teens and mad keen on traditional Scottish music. That night was one of many when I sat cloistered indoors, learning to play the side drum as a participant in the Boys’ Brigade Pipe...
I read more than I retain, but nevertheless, I've always had the approach that if you spend enough time reading, then something will always stick. Furthermore, when you get to my age, it would be fair...
Billy Wordsworth was, and still is, a well qualified technician with a passion for history, as it happens, but more on his passion later. He had worked throughout his whole career, until last year, fo...
No, I’m not talking about Nicole Kidman, Ginger Rogers, old US mate with the dead ginger cat as a coiffure, or a host of auburn hair coloured, pale skinned and freckled, lovely people, who we Aussies...
I write this on 26 January as the sun starts to set on another auspicious day for some of my fellow Australians, yet a day of mourning for so many others. 'Australia Day' marks the anniversary of the...
We had interstate visitors for a week, including our daughter and three year old grandson. This was the first party of people to visit since the state borders reopened and we felt the urge to escape t...
I was out on my late afternoon walk along our stretch of the bay a few years ago, when I was overcome by a sudden urge to cool my feet in the salty water, and so I left the concrete footpath, frequent...
I was looking through the SBS streaming channel here in Oz and stumbled across a familiar looking film title. Could it be? Was it possibly? What the ...? I clicked play and, sure enough, I was transpo...
No, I'm not suggesting that we bad-mouth, belittle or disparage each other by talking trash figuratively, metaphorically or even synecdochically [look it up] . I'm suggesting that we literally have a...
Not NSW but Queensland, actually! Here in the 'Lucky Land' of Oz and its 'Sunshine State', Queensland, we're currently so fortunate to be able to travel anywhere within the state, unhindered by pandem...
Spring has sprung again here in the southern hemisphere, and how better to see Mother Nature in all her petal blooming glory than to wend the wagons west to Toowoomba, which we did with gusto last wee...
It was a slow day and one of my non-work days. You know, the kind of satisfying slow when all the regular chores have been done in the garden and around the house, you can't be bothered going for a dr...
G’day all you people persons! I hope you still remember me. I’m Poops the perky punky parrot ... well cockatiel actually, but most folks don’t know their birds from their middle finger. That’s what my...
Why on earth should we speak English? After all, English is such a confusing and inconsistent language. It's almost like a plot that has been hatched by the users, choosers, perusers, producers (and i...
I was first exposed to the wonders of Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance while still in my formative years at high school. Back then I unwittingly sang soprano, having not yet experienced the on...
I'm currently enjoying chortling my way through Helen Russell's witty exposé of her relocation from UK to Denmark's Jutland ('Sticksville-on-Sea'). The title " The Year of Living Danishly " says it al...
I swear, you swear, we all swear, despite the indisputable fact that swearing truly is a curse. But, before I take off on a rampage through the profanity, obsenity, curses, foulness, dirt or colour of...
I was reminded recently that many of us use the word 'risk' rather loosely, as if it's something we either take or don't take. It might indeed appear that many of us are firmly ensconced in either one...
"Go the Wallabies!" Watching the national rugby team win on home turf at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, is absorbing, captivation, engaging, but, most of all, purely and simply entertaining. Currently, ho...
The view from the lodge at dawn was impressive but, as in many things on this island, somewhat deceptive. Some of you may remember that I checked into the Dr No Lodge on Deception Island about this ti...
In a new world order, where cash is becoming strictly off limits and toilet paper is in exponentially increasing demand, perhaps the new currency of choice, for those of us who are feeling flush, will...
I'm fed up with the constant bad news hype about this Mexican beer that's going viral all over the world. And then there's the following frequently asked questions, with a potential assortment of freq...
I must admit that I've never subscribed much to St Valentine's day. I find it hard to climb aboard the concept that some priest (or arguably bishop, depending upon the data source), who lost his head...
There was very little smoke in the sky today, in spite of the bushfires still raging to the south, across the border, in NSW and the prevailing south-westerly winds. Time to go bush into one of the ma...
"I don't like cricket, oh no, I love it." 10cc and Dreadlock Holiday Now I know that cricket isn't everyone's cup of tea, but, be that as it may, cricket, according to the greatest sports commentator...
This year the kids in the bush and their mums and dads are all wishing that Santa brings one thing and one thing only ... sustained and heavy rain (and pretty bloody soon) so that the relentless bushf...
G'day, g'day, and how ya goin'? A well known greeting here in Oz, also the first line of a famous Slim Dusty song, and a fair enough question about your mate's welfare. But, in normal circumstances, w...
There's a place we all must go to undertake the most personal of business, some sooner than others, and some more readily and even frequently than others; a place of inevitability, when, come hell or...
Having just had an enlightening and awakening cultural experience over the last few days at the Red Centre, learning about Anangu laws and way of life, and the stories of Tjukurpa, ( The Red Centre Ro...
I had to pinch myself as I stood here literally in the middle of my adopted homeland. It was a chilly start to the day, just as the sun was peeping over the horizon to transform this monstrous sandsto...
Went for a walk on the moon today. Didn't stay long. There was absolutely no atmosphere. They tell me that it was 50 years ago that my mates and I convinced the Aberdeen University Engineering Faculty...
If it looks like a duck, takes to water like a duck, but is as smooth as a baby's bottom in the bath, then you can de-duck-t it's a rubber ducky and not a contender for canard à l'orange. So what's th...
It was just after 5am on an April morning, it was cold, and the sun was struggling to penetrate a band of cloud across the eastern horizon. We could already see from our crowded vantage point, however...
Things were certainly different back then in the Outback Oz of 'olden days'. We penned our communications using ink and paper, we travelled on horseback, buggy or coach, according to our means, and we...
I'd been working from home and had just completed drafting my QM audit programme for the year when my mobile rang. It was the Regional Manager for Far North Queensland (FNQ). "Any chance you can fit i...
Another heinous mass murder hits the headlines. The echos of such deeds have shocked our societies for so long now that we are becoming virtually immune to their revelations, no longer shocked to the...
After delivering thousands of comments on others' posts here on beBee.com, and responding to 99.99% of the comments by others on my own posts, over the last three years, I believe I’m somewhat qualifi...
On a recent trip to one of the better weekend markets located on the outskirts of Brisbane, I stumbled across Bee Gees Way, a 70m long walkway which honours perhaps this bayside suburb's most famous f...
Australia, at an approximate estimate, has over 11,500 beaches, stretched out over some 36,000 km (that's about 22,400 miles) of coastline. Only about 400 of these beaches, however, are collectively p...
Hogmanay (or New Year's Eve in Scotland) was a time when, as a young lad, I keenly awaited the welcoming in of the New Year. On the first stroke of midnight, all gathered together in a tidy tenement '...
Hogmanay (New Year's Eve in Scotland) was always full of anticipation when I was a lad, in advance of welcoming in the New Year by 'first footing'. We'd gather together until the final stroke of midni...
First of all, guys, sorry that I've been a wee bit pre-occupied during the last few months, and have let my posts lapse to only the occasional once in a blue moon. To my less than ardent followers, yo...
Relax, why don't you! This bad boy's not going anywhere, because he's rooted to the spot. I refer, of course, to the giant Bunya Pine, still found in parts of Eastern Australia and which is not a real...
The Poetry in me, Has strong roots, just like a tree, Tapping deeply into metric paradigm, But I really won't compete, With those self proclaimed elite, Who ignore good grammar, rhythm, beat and rhyme...
Look at these impressive features: 55 km long; includes a 6.7 km long underwater tunnel; 2 artificial islands; 400,000 tons of steel; 8 years to build; $20 billion 'monetary' price tag; engineered to...
Once every year, the inland city of Toowoomba becomes a kaleidoscope of colour, as the annual spring Carnival of Flowers attracts tourists from far and wide, like bees to the honey pot. Perched on the...
Mud, mud, glorious mud, Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood. So follow me, follow, Down to the hollow, And there let us wallow in glo-o-o-orious mud. The Hippopotamus Song by Flanders and Swan...
The 'rellies' from the Netherlands had come to visit and a trip to Far North Queensland was organised (requiring a mere two and a half hour flight north from our home in Brisbane). Where else to intro...
We drove down to our regular morning constitutional spot on the bay this morning, on the north side of Victoria Point, and just a few clicks down the road from home. The sun was rising in a flawlessly...
"True Blue, is it me and you Is it Mum and Dad, is it a cockatoo Is it standin' by your mate when he's in a fight Or just Vegemi-ite True Blue, I'm a-asking you" John Williamson, Singer-Songwriter and...
Listen! Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell? Closer! Let me whisper in your ear. with apologies to Lennon and McCartney When we hear "our master's voice", or curiosity has the bet...
Today we stood on our driveways and balconies to remember them, but the lack of congregation was balanced by our respect and gratitude for those who serve and those who have fallen. I originally wrote...
Occasionally my blogs turn to Mother Earth and the plight we've put her in. What with all our take, take, take over the millennia, and our exploitation (without time for renewal) of her natural assets...
These rhyming thoughts were prompted by my old mate Gert Scholtz The author of the above, Ken Boddie, besides being a sometime poet and occasional writer, is an enthusiastic photographer, rarely leisu...
Just spent the last two and a half months moving house. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that things didn't go smoothly. In fact, if there were any more bumps on the metaphorical journey...
Why is everybody getting their knickers in knots over coral reefs being bleached? That only makes them cleaner, yes? What's so great about the Great Barrier Reef? It's only a tourist trap isn't it! Ca...
